I just bought a new scope for my Mini-14 Ranch. It hasn't arrived yet, but should be here by early next week. It was made by a company called Famous Maker - a place I've never even heard of. It was cheap, so I figured I could stand to get a bum scope and not be out of a lot of money. It's a 3-9x40 Mil Dot and has a rubber "armor" around the scope. It looks like a nice scope - at least from the online pictures of it.

Do any of you guys have any experience with Famous Maker scopes? If so, do you like them and would you recommend them for recreational shooting purposes?

I'll share my thoughts when I get the scope and try it out. It might be a total piece of dookie, but for the price, you can't really lose.

The scope you bought looks to be pretty much the same as a NC Star or Barska. Several companies buy scopes from the same factory in China and add their own badges to them.

It will be better than looking with your naked eye, but I'll be very interested in a range report where you shoot it at some distance and change magnifications and see if it hits the same spot. Usually with less expensive optics you will hit one spot at 3x and someplace else at 9x.

I'll also be curious to see if it holds zero, and if the elevation and windage adjustments actually work.

I hope it all does work right and that you are happy with it.

If it doesn't, giving the rest of us a head's up would be appreciated.

Famous Maker makes a lot of the low dollar scopes that bottom end companies sell. They're ok for plinking as long as you don't give them a lot of recoil. But in general, they're not a good product. I sell optics and I won't sell their models. Their red dots are pretty much the same unit as everyone else is selling, but their magnified optics rank lower than BSA and Simmons.

Mini-14s, at least the older models, were known scope breakers because of the sharp jolt of the bolt carrier impacting the receiver. I hope it works out well for you, but I wouldn't want to take any bets on longevity.

I agree that not all cheap optics are poor optics. I hunt with a guy that scopes every rifle he gets with a Leapers and kills game every year. He doesn't shoot more than 75-100 yards and for what he's doing they are enough. I have been upgrading optics on my rifles as money allows and have been gifting him all of my cast offs. "mostly replacing Simmons,Tasco and clam packed Bushnells with Vortex, Millet, Nikon etc." I'm all about getting the most bang for the buck as I've got more than 20 rifles to scope. At some point with any optic, you reach the point of just having a really clear picture of things you can't hit.

I have one of these on my Mini-30 and feel like for $120 "on sale" it's the best deal in optics right now.

The scope is actually pretty nice, but the rings are another matter. Because of the rubber "armor" around the scope, it requires beefier scope rings - my Ruger scope rings aren't quite big enough in diameter. I also found out that the "claws" (from the FM scope mounts) won't fit into the scope rail of my 10/22. Looks like I'm either going to have to find a wider scope rail, wider scope rings, or (most likely) send the scope back.

Send it back. Semi-automatic rifle was gas pistons are brutal on scopes. The impact from the gas piston hitting the bolt or operating rod trashes scopes quickly. People think I am a knucklehead for putting a Leupold pistol scope on my SKS. They usually say that before seeing the paper though.

Buy good glass. Even more so for a semi-automatic. Even way more so for a defensive firearm.

You have two options. Buy good glass or buy good iron sights. If the price range of your scope is your budget. Check out Williams peep sights. I forgot what a mini-14 has for sights. But, a peep sight is a big step up.

If going cheap, check out on line auctions for a swift pistol scope. I have used them on SKS rifles and they live just fine. Usually can get a used one for less than $75. They make 200-300 range optics.

Another diamond in the rough is pentax too.

An affordable, but quality enough scope will either be a Burris fullfield II or a Nikon prostaff. Buy quality mounting rings too. The most common problem with a firearm at the range is cheap scope mounts coming loose. You'll loose as much money on ammo trying to figure out what happened than what quality rings and bases cost. Millet, Leupold (not rifleman line), warne, or burris are good brands.

Also, ditch the 3-9x idea. Get 1-4x or 2-7x. 40ft field of view at 100 yards is minimum. I prefer 60ft at 100 yards.

another excellent diamond in the rough is the Bushnell 3200 elite in firefly. The firefly reticle glows in the dark for a good long time if you put a flashlight into the scope for a minute. Great alternative to $600 illuminated scopes. The scope is $400 new, however, the unusual reticle didn't sell that good. So, they're going for $150-$180 range. Awesome little scope. Worked just fine 1 hour before dawn. Survives the recoil of a .450 marlin round in a 6lb rifle. Should be fine with a mini-14.

Reliability is above every other trait. Don't trust unreliable things. That may be a good reason you bought a mini-14 to begin with.

Not much left of Forsythe after the coal mine closed. I've been all over the state of Montana, and were it not for winter time and all the Indian Reservations I'd look at a transfer to the Billings Refinery. :-)

Not much left of Forsythe after the coal mine closed. I've been all over the state of Montana, and were it not for winter time and all the Indian Reservations I'd look at a transfer to the Billings Refinery. :-)

The winters ain't so bad in some parts. I lived in Butte for two years and the winters were actually pretty mild.

I agree that not all cheap optics are poor optics. I hunt with a guy that scopes every rifle he gets with a Leapers and kills game every year.

Leapers is another brand that I sell. They're not the "look at them and they break in your hand" Leapers of 15 years ago. Their Accushot and UTG series is as good as anything on the market at twice the price.

There are some very good scopes out there in the lower price range. The trick is figuring out which ones. I test each model and if it's not something I would be happy buying, I won't sell it. Needless to say, I don't sell the entire model line from any of the lower priced producers.

I actually use Accushot scopes on a couple of my competition rifles. I regularly beat guys with $1,000 optics on theirs. That's not saying that Accushot is better than theirs, because it isn't. It's just saying that it's "good enough".

I have a couple of Bushnell Trophy scopes that are actually good gear, and their Elite series are very good scopes.

Very cool that you only carry gear you'd use. If more shops did this, it would drive the lesser scopes away. I know why other shops carry them, and why gun shows are infested with junk, but it still bites. It's a lot more practical to take 100 scopes that sell for $40 and you make $10 from to a gun show than it is to take 4k worth of good scopes you're only making 10% on. It's why you don't see Zeiss scopes or top end Nikons and such at shows but you do see NC Stars and Barskas all over the place. We all have our budgets, but there is good gear at any price range if you know what to buy.

I'm looking at getting one of the discontinued trophy models with the illuminated dot for my Saiga .223 I've looked through a friends and was really impressed.

I have a couple of Bushnell Trophy scopes that are actually good gear, and their Elite series are very good scopes.

Very cool that you only carry gear you'd use. If more shops did this, it would drive the lesser scopes away. I know why other shops carry them, and why gun shows are infested with junk, but it still bites. It's a lot more practical to take 100 scopes that sell for $40 and you make $10 from to a gun show than it is to take 4k worth of good scopes you're only making 10% on. It's why you don't see Zeiss scopes or top end Nikons and such at shows but you do see NC Stars and Barskas all over the place. We all have our budgets, but there is good gear at any price range if you know what to buy.

I'm looking at getting one of the discontinued trophy models with the illuminated dot for my Saiga .223 I've looked through a friends and was really impressed.

That's exactly how I got into lower dollar scopes to start with. There was a high investment and low return on expensive scopes and the customers weren't interested in them. I finally began researching less expensive alternatives. But selling "junk" is not a way to get repeat customers, and that's important for a business. So I have to try and sort the good from the bad before selling it. I'd very much like to see the junk driven out of the market.

Personally, I try to buy older El Paso made Weavers. I don't find them often, but I do pick one up occasionally. Usually the prices are quite low too.